One Laptop Per Child Mission
The mission of OLPC is to give every child around the world, regardless of the language they speak or where they live, the opportunity to be connected. The OLPC is a nonprofit organization that provides rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptops to all children. The laptop, called the XO, is made to work in tough conditions and remote locations where it can be charged via solar power, thus rugged and low-power. The low-cost factor is so that every child can have their own laptop and so that each child can be connected via the internet. Each laptop comes loaded with educational software and a built-in camera. The screens can be read outside since so many kids they reach attend school outdoors. The power of education is the main mission of the OLPC where children can be engaged, inspired, share their projects, explore, collaborate and so much more.
What a terrific mission! You cannot beat a mission in which education is the top priority and laptops are created and geared towards children. I can also appreciate the fact that these laptops have the capacity to grow with the needs of the children. One question I have is if there are people from the organization who helps the children get started in learning how the laptop functions. I would think that children in remote and/or poor areas would open the box of the laptop and be perplexed. As soon as they take off, there will be no stopping them!
The Participation Divide
According to the article, The Participation Divide, there is not a difference between genders when it comes to actively creating and sharing online. Sharing online allows people to post and participate in posting without identifying themselves in any respect. "No longer must one have large budgets to finance production and the necessary influence to get past gatekeepers when attempting to disseminate one's work." (p.239) It has become easier to reach more people through posting online today than it was in the past. The point of this article is to determine if the amount of sharing with new opportunities through digital media is equal among genders.
"Those who share their content publicly have the ability to set the agenda of public discussions and debates." (p.240) According to this article, women have been under-represented when it comes to outstanding posting. The idea of being under-represented can be questioned as to whether or not women create as many posts versus men or if those posts from women are taken as seriously.
The research from this article found that "content creation in a digital age is not randomly distributed among a group of young adults." (p. 252) In fact, it has been found that regardless of gender, students who have at least one parent who has a graduate degree are the ones who will most likely create online/offline content. However, without certain reasons "women are significantly less likely to share their creations on the web." (p. 252) Perhaps once skill levels increase, perhaps this will show a more even creative input between genders.
The New Literacy: Scenes from the Digital Divide 2.0
The initial digital divide from the 1990's referred to basically children growing up with technology versus adults who were in need of learning technology and "those with access to computers and those without." (p. 1) A new digital divide has sprung with the world of social media: those comfortable with social media versus those still learning. Social media can refer to "Web 2.0 tools, including wikis, blog, micro-blogs, Twitter, linking, tagging, podcasting, forums, video sharing, vlogs, Drupal-based group blogs, social bookmarking, and virtual worlds such as Second Life." (p.1) This era of literacy is known as "digiteracy."
Teachers must keep up-to-date with the world of "digiteracy," otherwise there could be a new divide among teachers and students in schools. Educational grants are seeing a shift from "school reform and instructional improvement toward the socially mediated world of digital learning." (p.2) "A recent MacArthur Foundation study shows that each day, 80% of American teenagers use a computer. Half of them are creating digital-media content, and a third of them are sharing the content online." (p.2) With this in mind, classroom scenes are changing and are moving towards becoming digitalized. Teachers must remain focused on this move and understand that time online is not just playing, but it is actually learning. Students are actually learning how to find information on their own. Teachers are just their guides to direct them through learning and not to spew facts their way.
"Without digital connectivity, home computers might still have been useful, but probably little more than glorified typewriters or very expensive adding machines." (p.4) It is vital that people who are looking for jobs today understand technology because technology is ruling the -verse. Even Reverend Jesse Jackson has input on this digital divide calling it "classic apartheid" and NAACP's Kweisi Mfume calls it "technological segregation."
Slamming the Closet Door and Taking Control: Analysis of Personal Transformation and Social Change as LGBT Podcasting Blazes a Trail of Democratization of the Media
The idea in this paper is "to understand why and how the LGBT community has identified and made of this communication tool." (p.1) Podcasting among the LGBT community allows transformative learning to take place due to the varied backgrounds such as sexual identities and personas.
"These podcasts reveal LGBT adults discovering their voices, morphing their public self and building societal impact individually and collectively." (p.1) Basically by allowing everyone an opportunity within this form of media reveals a democratization of the media (as stated in the title of this paper). The internet in all its forms has become an open forum which is free from politics, social, economic and religious constraints.
Podcasting can be an informative avenue for people of all backgrounds. Podcasters, regardless of the forum, may altogether stop for a variety of reasons. "The most common reason people stop podcasting is because they did not realize the time commitment involved when they started." (p.4) Other reasons are possible technological difficulties, lack of interest, lack of fame, possible responses from listeners, and more. For the LGBT community, it may not fit with their personas.
Adult learners listen to podcasts mostly for (foreign) language learning.
"New media is used to meaningfully and effectively provide opportunities for LGBT adult learners to 'test the waters' of their closeted or new personas, gain voice, and embrace control in the dominate culture." (p.4) LGBT learners have the opportunity to experience freedom and validation through this new media. They can share with others and read/listen to what others have to say. It is an open forum for all.
Finding a Place in Cyberspace: Black Women, Technology, and Identity
The idea of this paper is threefold: "the current discourse on race and technology (the digital divide), the experiences of black women who work in technology, and the figuration of the race and gender on the Web." (p.48) The commonality that these things share is what place black women have in cyberspace. There is a myth that states that cyberspace is "raceless, genderless, and sexuality-free." "Lisa Nakamura argues that 'race is constructed as a matter of aesthetics, or finding the color that you like, rather than as a matter of ethnic identity or shared cultural referents. The fantasy of skin color divorced from politics, oppression or racism seems to also celebrate it as infinitely changeable, customizable; as an entirely elective as well as poitical." (p.48) Cyberspace is a wide open forum that apparently resembles the operations of the real world.
When this paper was written, African Americans and Latinos were among the fastest-growing groups on the internet. "Asian Americans were far ahead of everyone else." (p. 49) According to this paper, there is apparently a noticeable interest and user growth among African Americans on the internet when the hardware prices of the internet dropped. The paper also included details of three African-American women who work as senior systems analysts and the paths of their careers. It also discussed the roles of race and gender on their career paths. Two women mentioned experiences of racist practices during their careers whereas the other woman said she had not personally witnessed racist treatment. The two women who mentioned racist experiences said that it was due to several factors: "the economic slump, a general trend of African American white collar workers seeking careers outside the Twin Cities, and racist practices by management." (p.51) One woman mentioned the fact that their were insulting comments since her white junior colleagues had not acquired the skills she had. The researcher of this paper described how even though black women were achieving more in school, black men were able to find employment more with their advanced degrees than the women. The women apparently had the brains, but not the power.
According to this article, black women have increased their presence at universities by 400% within the last 20 years (from the writing of this article). However, it is noted in this paper that "in Web sites featuring black achievements and timelines of important events, black men dominate the pages." (p.56) That indicates a double whammy to African-American females: gender and race.
Can One Laptop Per Child Reduce the Digital Divide and Educational Gap?
This article discusses how the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) would bode, specifically in Beijing, China. The idea was to find out if there were any (positive) outcomes regarding the OLPC. The facts were that the OLPC (XO) computers were given to 300 third-grade students in 13 migrant schools in Beijing. Results showed that certain scores were increased, computer skills improved and there was less TV viewing. Overall, students' self-esteem rose. Testing, including locale and number of students, was very limited.
This study was also trying to determine "if the OLPC program could reduce the digital divide and benefit learning of disadvantaged children." (p.25) This includes "20 million school aged migrant children whose parents are not able to provide enough instruction, as they have low education levels and they are constantly on the run for work." (p.25) The migrant schools in China did not have the capacity to help students who fell behind. Fortunately the students were able to learn through the software provided on the computers.
Further testing is required before spending much more money on such an enormous endeavor.
MY THOUGHTS
I think that the idea of every kid in the world, regardless of where they live or what language they speak, receiving a computer which will connect them with today's society is a terrific idea. I think that you cannot just give the computers without having instructors who can help with the implementation of them. I think it is important to have a plan where various tests can take place to assure the (positive) outcomes. My plan would entail giving computers to a few poor areas in a few countries at a time, test to make sure the system is working and that the students are learning, thus reducing the digital divide. Whatever the students learn can be shared with the adults in the community, thus reducing the divide even further.
I tried logging into sistahspace.com without luck. This is the black women's website onto which more nonwhites and women are logging. I have trouble imagining the idea of racism taking place on the web since people can post anonymously. Apparently language is just as strong verbally as it is written.
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